It seems like every other health article and Instagram post is trying to promote the next best supplement these days. It is very hard to get unbiased information on supplements. It is straight up confusing to feed through the hype and distinguish between clever marketing and what actual works.

Most sources? They have an agenda. Supplement companies misrepresenting science. Media sensationalizing headlines. Companies and individuals pushing unneeded supplements and other products onto you. We aren’t saying that all supplement companies are out to cheat you. There are some great brands and products out there for sure. However, it is not so simple to feed through all the noise.

That’s why we brought Kamal Patel on the show. Kamal runs Examine.com. Examine is an unbiased database of supplement and nutrition information. What is unique about Examine, is that they have no monetary agenda around selling you products. They are pulling together all the science, reading the research, and putting it online.

In this episode, we catch up with Dr Andy Galpin and Kamal at Andy’s lab and talk about what supplements you should be taking and which ones are overhyped. If you want to settle the confusion around supplements and start directing your energy towards what works, this episode is for you.

Also, if this show sparks your interest to tap into to more info, you can get access to premium Examine resources like their supplement stack guides and research digests to optimize your supplementation and stay on top of the latest supplement research. Save as much as 20% when you visit barbellshrugged.com/examine

You ever think about how much you use your hands when you train? Think about it. When you are using a barbell, a kettlebell, the pull up rig, or a pair of rings, your grip strength is playing a huge role in your strength, how long you can perform the movement, and the level of movement capacity you have. More importantly, it is typically the first thing to give out.

In this week's show, we caught up with Andy Galpin and Kenny Kane at CrossFit LA to talk about how you can step up your game when it comes to grip strength. We dive into wrist mobility, gymnastics drills, and why you need to be training your grip in different positions.

Example: the 2015 CrossFit Games Pegboard challenge. Some of the strongest athletes in the world are throwing massive weight overhead, doing gnarly metcons, and performing kipping pullups for days ...but as soon as they are required to turn their hand position 90 degrees, their grip strength goes to shit. You can bet that the games athletes who fell apart in that event are going to be spending some time training their grip strength. You should too, and a great place to start is with this episode.

If you've been doing a few minutes on a rower and half-ass rolling on a piece of foam for your recovery, you may have already figured out it's not enough.

Our guest this week, Jill Miller, founder of Tune Up Fitness and author of The Roll Model, said it perfectly, "Healing happens in our restorative state".

Your body is an adaptive machine.

If you want to get stronger and faster, you need to put the same amount of attention on how your recover if you truly want to be able to access the most out of your body and training.

We spoke with Jill about how we can better prepare our bodies topush hard and stay healthy while training by recovering better.

Although Jill's background is in the yoga world, the information she shares goes far beyond warrior poses and OMing. She has an amazing amount of knowledge of the human body and has developed tools and practices on self care, particularly with fascial work and mobility.

In this episode, Jill shares her strategies and translates some the science behind down regulation, recovery, and how we can optimize and train our bodies to recover faster and more efficiently. Her information is as unique as it is important for hard-charging athletes.

You'd do well to tune in and listen.

Lastly, be sure to check out Jill's therapy self-massage tools and Yoga Tune Up programs designed to help you recover from training more effectively, relieve pain and stress, and improve balance and strength at her website here.

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are going to show you how to take your performance to the next level. It is 2017. We are using technology, more than ever, to understand the body-mind connection and make them both stronger. This is the next level for performance and creating an optimal experience for you as an athlete. Helping us dive deep down this rabbit hole, Daniel Schmachtenberger tells us how to neurohack your athletics. Daniel is the Co-Founder and Director of R&D at Neurohacker Collective.

With a background in many bio science fields with a unique focus on complex systems optimization, Daniel and his team are leading the pack in designing whole systems approaches to performance and athletic enhancement without side effects.

We dive into better solutions for PRE-WORKOUT, recovery, nootropics, anti-aging practices, the cutting edge protocols for hormone optimization, and all the things you can be doing beyond the basics. We are going deeper than we ever have when it comes to performance enhancement, and make your plateau a baseline again.

This week on Barbell Shrugged we interview Stephanie Gaudreau and talk about how to break through diet dogma. Stephanie is the founder of Stupid Easy Paleo, and has been helping hundreds of thousands of people change their relationship and habits with food. Unlike most food bloggers, Stephanie is not trying to convert you to her version of eating. On the contrary, she is actually quite fed up with the dogmatic rules that many of the people in the Paleo community project on others.

When we hear the word "Paleo" we automatically think of a set of rules around the foods we can and cannot eat. Although there is value around starting with a template, the truth of matter is, we are all different. We each have unique biochemistry, different preferences, and personalized goals. With that said "eating like a caveman" does not explain much about how to eat, and it often leaves people confused, and influences others to create false assumptions around what it means to adopt Paleo principles.

We brought Stephanie on the show to break through the noise, and talk about how to develop your own unique version of eating that will help you thrive and reach your lifestyle and performance goals.

Ladies, after the show be sure to check out the Stephanie's Women's Strength Summit. Get access to an extensive collection of over 30 interviews with some of the top female experts in the fitness and nutrition community, including interviews with pasts guests of Barbell Shrugged like Diane Fu, Dr.Theresa Larson and Julie Foucher.